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About The Artist In Progress... Lenora Ross was born in November 1945 to parents Leroy and Minnie (Byrd) Ross in the Cumminsville of South Cincinnati, OH. Her father, a native of Alabama, was noted to be a handyman in the 1950 census. Leroy and Minnie took out a marriage license around February 26, 1935. When Lenora was born, she had three brothers, Leroy, Jr., James and Charles. Leroy (B: March 11, 1913) died on October 14, 1979 at a Veterans Administration Medical Center. Research first sees Lenora as a performer in 1970, performing with a group in Covington, KY. Ads spelled her name as Lenore and LeMore. But she must have started to get noticed. The Television listings in the Cincinnati Enquirer show her as a guest on Nick Clooney's television show on Channel 9 - WCPO-TV at 12:30pm on December 3, 1970. (Note: Mr. Clooney's sister was the famed singer, Rosemary Clooney.) The next step in her career was to audition to become a part of the Lawrence Welk show. The local channel 19 (WXIX-TV) had sponsored a "Miss Champagne Music" contest that had 52 contestants in 1971. The winner was Vicki Lindholm, 20 years old and a senior operatic voice student at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music. The Lawrence Welk show was to appear at Cincinnati Gardens on Wednesday, September 8, 1971. But that did not mean she would sing on that show. She was to audition for Welk before his concet and would possibly perform during the show. There were five runners-up to Vicki. Pepi Valentine (Ft. Wright, KY); Debbie Pinkerton, Mary Jones and Lenora Ross, all of Cincinnati and Margie Short of Aurora, IN. Lenora, said to be all of 4 feet, 11 inches tall by Steve Hoffman, earned an invitation to be one one of his show's upcoming syndicated television show tapings. She sang two songs in Welk's dressing room for him - "Misty" and "When I Fall In Love." And sang, "Satin Doll" during the Welk Concert at Cincinnati Gardens. Welk extended the invitation after the concert. Mr. Hoffman, the TV-Radio editor for the Cincinnati Enquirer, told readers she had sang professionally for 12 years (which would mean as far back as 1959). She graduated from Cincinnati Hughes High School. She played in local Cincinnati clubs. At the time, she was living in what was known as the Cumminsville neighborhood of Cincinnati. She mad a good first impression with Welk. She was the first performer that was invited to appear on his show after Welk and his troupe had done 16 concerts during the year. Hoffman quoted Welk: "We were impressed with her as a singer and as a person." Welk also noted he had been looking for a black singer for the show for over a year. Audience and staff reaction to her appearance will help determine her future with the Welk organization. A TV Briefs column on October 15 indicated that Lenora had a secret or idea of how to connect with Lawrence. When she met the band leader, she told him "Good day! How are you?" - In German, the languate Welk spoke until he was 21. That same article stated that Lenora had toured with Dave Matthews' band in Europe during 1966 - 1968. She then spent the summer of 1970 in Germany with comedian Buddy Bowser. This may be a different Dave Matthews band than the one that is said to have formed in 1994.
  In 1972, Lenora appeared at least twice on the Avco Broadcasting syndicated television program, "Midwestern Hayride." On June 3 and then on the show's last broadcast on September 2. Kenny Price was the host of this popular show.
  In January 1975, Record World reported that the RCA Victor label had signed Lenora Ross to an exclusive recording contract. Her first release was "In the Park Afte Dark." Shortly after her signing, she appeared in front of 2,000 at Taft Auditorium on Saturday, February 8 with Conway Twitty, Cal Smith, Mickey Gilley and Conway's son, Michael. While the main attraction was Conway, Marvin Beard did mention Lenora. She opened the show ("I'm from Cumminsville.") and was said to be half Indian and half black. He thought that perhaps she could become the female Charley Pride. That same week, Red O'Donnell in his syndicated column mentioned that two Negro female country and western singers were on the record scene - Lenora Ross and Ruby Falls. He asked, "Distaff answers to Charley Pride?" One could almost sense that RCA was doing what it could to promote its newest talent on their roster. Articles were being written in the Cincinnati newspapers touting the local rising talent. She was getting mentioned in Nashville's newspapers by Red O'Donnell. The general theme seemed to be that she would become the female counterpart to Charley Pride on the RCA roster. He wrote, "So far no black female country artist has followed Pride's lead. But this does not mean no one is trying. The strongest challenge to the Tammy Wynette-Lynn Anderson-types may come from Lenora Ross, an elfin woman (she's 4'11") form Cumminsville." Mr. Radel noted that while Cumminsville might not be where one would expect to find a country enthusiast such as Lenora, he noted that those who saw her in concert at Taft Auditorium the previous weekend heard a singer "steeped in traditional country music." She told the writer where her interest came from. "My mother is from Gainesville, Georgia, and my father is from Evergreen, Alabama. I can remember my dad listening to Roy Acuff, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Grand Ole Opry." She said she performed in public for the first time when she was just two years old and said, "I still have the trophy I got." When she was in Hughes High School, she sang with her own group, the Hearts. She said "We sang rock harmonies like the Platters and my mother made skirts for us with hearts all over them." While at Hughes, one of her major influences was Conway Twitty. She also listened to such female singers as Brenda Lee and Dinah Washington. She was deemed 'weird' in that her friends and peers preferred rock and soul. But to them she noted, "But I was different in high school because I was always thinking about the future. My friends just lived from day to day." She told columnist Jack Hurst in May 1975 who her female idols were: Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Tanya Tucker, Aretha Franklin, Jean Shepard. And especially Dolly Parton. She told Mr. Hurst a tidbit about her encounter with Dolly at the annual disc jockey convention. "Last fall (1974) in the disc jockey convention in Nashville, she was sitting next to me at a thing where each label gets all its people together and lets the disc jockeys interview whoever they want. In early 1975, she did ten dates with Conway Twitty in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. She also did foura ppearances on the Jamboree USA show in Wheeling, WV. She had a dream of someday doing a duet with Charley Pride. Mr. Hurst wrote she seemed happy in country music. He noted some of the audiences took her for Indian or Portuguese. She was accepted by audiences, but she felt that it was not only Charley Pride she thanks - "Roy Acuff, Lester Flatt, Kitty Wells and Jimmy SKinner. These and all the other great old-times are the ones who did it first. They're the first one s who helped fix it so that the rest of us could sing what we wanted to." She graduated from high school in 1963. She took a gig singing with the Dave Matthews jazz band in Europe. Cliff Radel spoke to that aspect in his February 16 column in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
 
   
  Lenora married Richard Brawner in November of 1975; he had been previously married, divorcing his wife Mary in June of 1975.
  Credits & Sources
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